In 2011, federal bank regulators announced a process to right these wrongs.
The Independent Foreclosure Review had a simple aim. If a borrower had
suffered “financial injury” (the emotional toll would not be
considered), then the review would make it right. Compensation payments
would range as high as $125,000.

But for borrowers, it was yet another descent into confusion. Just as
so many had waited months and often years for an answer from their
servicer, homeowners sent in a pile of documents and watched and waited
as 2011 turned into 2012 and then 2013.

The review process ended with a whimper early this year. The process was such a mess, regulators announced, that they’d decided it was better to call it quits.
No more trying to determine each borrower’s “financial injury.” The
banks would just cut a check for millions of homeowners who had been in
foreclosure, regardless of whether they were wronged.